Mayor Karl Dean’s administration has made a $3.25 million offer for the old J.C. Penney building and the 12.31-acre site it sits on at Hickory Hollow Mall in Antioch. Metro would put a library and a community center in the building and a small park outside it.

Last September, Dean proposed putting those services and Metro’s archives at the Penney building. At the same time, he said Metro should move the Tennessee State Fairgrounds flea market and expo center to the former Dillard’s building at Hickory Hollow.

The latter idea fell apart under criticism from flea market vendors and others, and Dean withdrew the whole plan in a setback to his fairgrounds redevelopment vision. But now the Penney plans seem to be back, minus the archives, which historians didn’t want to move that far from downtown. The mayor and council members have said Antioch and southeast Davidson County desperately need more government services to keep pace with the area’s rapid growth.

Meanwhile, Tennessean higher education scribe Jennifer Brooks reports that a Tennessee Board of Regents spokeswoman confirmed the board is in “active discussions” to buy the Dillard’s building for a satellite campus for Nashville State Community College.